The IFL Blew It!!!

The more mainstream MMA is becoming, the more you realize just how badly the IFL blew their chances. They had a network deal on MyTV and in a short time got cancelled.

They actually had a prime time slot for 2 hours on Monday nights. That was later reduced to 1 hour which was later bumped to a different day altogether and then to a 1am time slot.

How did they blow it in such a short time you say?

Well first of all, they showed only replays. There was never a live fight in the first month or 2 of the telecasts. I know because I had them all on tivo. You never knew what the standings were because the fights were in all different order. You never knew who was on which team because a lot of the fighters were different every show too. One week the Anaconda's were 3-2, the next week they were 2-1. What the hell were they thinking?

Second of all, they kept showing the same fights over and over again. They landed a 2 hour slot and couldn't put different fights on? Because they showed the same fights was another reason you couldn't figure out what position each team was in. They tried to promote it as a team event but some nights, they had fighters from 4 or 5 different teams fighting. There was no way to follow them so the only way they would have gotten ratings was to have amazing fights. Which they didn't.

And the biggest reason they blew it was they promoted the one thing that MMA has been trying to avoid for the last 8 years. VIOLENCE! The entire marketing scheme was to promote the athleticism of the fighters and not the violence. The violence was what had it banned from even pay per view. Every night the preview commentary talked about the most vicious knockouts you ever saw were coming up. They promoted a guy being hauled out on a stretcher. The one thing that got them back on TV was how the violence wasn't the gimmick and the fighters were noble people, with educations and families.

The third reason alone was enough to get it booted. How stupid are they? That was there chance to compete. They had a prime time slot and absolutely blew it and they deserved to blow it. How could they not learn from the past. Here's the scenario: Let's see, what got MMA banned from TV? Uh, all the violence??? Yes. What got MMA back on TV. Uh, less violence and better athletes??? Yes. Soooooooo how should we market this? I GOT IT!!!!! Violence!!!! It's almost too easy.

Do you see how absurd that reads? That's probably how it went too.

They have a few good fighters too. Chris Horedecki, Matt Horwich, those guys have some potential. If they were smart, they would run to another organization because I'm not sure how much longer the IFL will be around. There's no way they're gonna be able to pay the coaches to stay as well as the fighters without a network deal. Hopefully they'll learn from their horrible mistake but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't.